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‘I agree,' said Tom. ‘There's also a probable link between Carr and Sharon Miller. Zoe claimed they were in a close relationship. I sent Carr's picture through to Klaus Krenkel; asked him to show it to the German who pulled the girl from the river. Had a message back this morning. Witness says it was too dark by that bridge to make any identification with the man who ran off.'

Heather then revealed her failure to discover anything useful from her undercover attempt to buy a present for her teenage brother.

‘Jake Morgan's an arrogant misogynist in the making. Told me in no uncertain terms the club was for members only, and adults, however enterprising, were denied membership. We'll have to approach it from another angle,' she concluded. ‘Jake Morgan is one very sharp character, and it's always tricky questioning minors.' She looked at Tom. ‘I know the problem with your daughters, sir, and it's important that we sort this before they become too involved. Is it possible for you to keep them away from Jake's summerhouse until we know if what they're buying are stolen goods?'

‘I've already told my wife we're investigating the club. She'll keep the girls otherwise occupied.' He gave a wry grin. ‘I may have to claim heavy expenses if she has to take them to
Demoiselle
too often.'

Heather returned his grin. ‘That store's a teen's paradise.'

‘I agree it's tricky to advance the case through schoolkids,' said Max, ‘but there's a vital lead we must follow. Zoe claimed Carr had a close relationship with Sharon Miller. She hinted that it was sexual?' he asked, looking at Piercey. At the Sergeant's nod, he continued. ‘Sharon is sixteen. That's not underage, but she is still at school. We have to establish if her parents knew what she was up to. It seems unlikely, in view of Miller's fierce hatred of Carr. So have we found the reason for it? Could Miller have been told of his daughter's affair on the morning of the assault during which Carr disappeared? In short, is Sharon Miller the key to why Carr had to go AWOL, or be got rid of?'

‘We're back to the body in a shallow grave,' murmured Piercey. Then, louder, ‘Miller has a very short fuse. He'd have no problem with putting an end to someone who'd been bonking his school age daughter.'

‘But he stayed with the Warrior during the assault,' Heather reminded him. ‘It was geographically impossible for him to kill Carr.'

‘Then he paid someone else to do it,' snapped Piercey. ‘He bloody knows where Carr is.'

Tom intervened. ‘I suspect Sharon Miller could give us info that would help us get on top of the case. The only response we've had from posting his details on HOLMES has come from UK forces who want to question him about year-old crimes. No recent sightings or anonymous tip-offs—'

‘Apart from the call saying someone had finally done for him,' inserted Piercey doggedly.

‘—so it's very likely Carr is still in Germany, hiding out somewhere.'

‘In a shallow grave?' suggested Heather with a poker face.

‘OK, we've had enough adolescent jibing,' Tom ruled harshly. ‘Start behaving like adults with some sense of responsibility. You had bugger all to do with the Farley case, so get your thick heads around this one and do some bloody serious thinking. The I in SIB stands for
investigation
. You've forgotten the meaning of the word.'

Max got to his feet. ‘I have to spend the morning writing my report on the Farley case. After lunch I'll tackle Captain Morgan; find out if he's aware of what Jake is doing in that summerhouse. Mr Black says the boy has a Brummie accent. Did he or his father make that call to George Maddox? How well did they know Carr, or Smith as he was then called?'

He turned to Connie. ‘We need to speak to Sharon Miller. Find out if she's in a fit condition to be questioned. She received head injuries, and brain specialists are always hot on protecting their patients from emotional stress. We've had no reason to chart her progress, so I want you to interview her mother. Ask if the girl is allowed visitors other than next of kin. Discreet probing regarding Sharon's friendship with Carr will tell us if Zoe lied about its depth.' He smiled at the ultra-proficient girl. ‘You'll manage, in your inimitable way, to coax far more from the woman than she'll be aware of giving. Get her when she's alone. Avoid an hour when Miller is likely to arrive home.'

He concentrated on Piercey. ‘I want you to interview Zoe Rogers; in correct fashion this time, in her mother's presence. Get her to confirm that the J.S. she mentioned
is
John Smith, and persuade her to reveal just how he made her life more exciting. Apart from the obvious. He surely wasn't having sex with her too.'

‘She made it pretty obvious not. I imagine
yuk
was a denial of anything of that nature.'

Max gave a faint smile. ‘I don't know what definition the Oxford English gives the word, but the mere sound of it is probably self-explanatory. Use
tact
, Sergeant. We don't want a complaint of police brutality from the parent.'

‘This suggestion of Carr making life exciting is intriguing,' put in Derek Beeny. ‘Every male we've interviewed found him creepy, slimy, sly, cowardly, you name it. Doesn't sound as if he could make
anyone's
life exciting.'

‘You're not a sixteen year old who imagines she'll be the next Meryl Streep,' said his friend, Piercey.

‘All the same—'

Max interrupted Beeny's further observations. ‘Have another go at CD and DVD suppliers. Market traders, and the foreign immigrants who sell from suitcases in the streets. You'll have to fix for one of Klaus Krenkel's guys to go with you. Carr
had
to get them from someone a bit dodgy.' He then focussed on Olly Simpson. ‘Tour the pubs and clubs. Suss out if anyone's doing business there. You can go solo on that. We'll inform the
Polizei
if we uncover anything.'

He crossed to where Heather sat. ‘We'll need to stay abreast of the Farley case. Contact Lewes CID. Ask how far they've got with those bikers; whether they have evidence that Phil Hawkins, the junior half of the taxi business, was in on the plan to pick up and steal from Farley. Try to wheedle from them what charge they're likely to bring against those four louts, and the possible date of it going to trial. Lieutenant Farley will have to attend, which could mean flying him home from Afghanistan. It might even prevent him from being sent out there with his platoon. I hope not. He might see it as a triumph for Trish Stannard.'

‘
She
would certainly see it that way,' said Heather tartly. ‘The backlog in UK criminal courts will more likely mean Farley will have done his tour in Afghanistan and been back here some weeks before he's called.'

‘I'll have to give evidence of how I found him, and the state he was in. I shan't mince words, believe me.'

Once everyone had been detailed to undertake one task relevant to a case that had been revitalized by Zoe Rogers's gossip, Max and Tom went to the former's office for a less formal discussion.

‘Have a nice time last night?' Tom asked casually. ‘Saw you leaving with the Doc. Medical emergency?'

Max laughed. ‘Cheeky bugger! She wanted my opinion on an apartment she was going to view.'

‘Big enough for two?'

‘She's married, Tom.'

‘Not for much longer, I hear. He's too fond of the GTGs.' He saw Max's eyebrows lift. ‘Good time girls.'

‘Guards' officers get the pick of 'em frequenting the exclusive clubs in town. I don't envy him. Not my scene at all.'

‘How about his missus?'

‘She's her own woman.'

‘So, he turns to one-night stands to compensate? Add the fact that she's over here and he's in London, and you've got one very dysfunctional marriage. The moment she became a military medic it didn't stand a chance.'

‘It cuts both ways. He can be sent to any place on earth at any time, and at very short notice.'

‘But he can only be a soldier in the Army. She could be a civilian doctor.' Tom allowed a moment or two to pass before asking, ‘Manage to see Captain Cordwell this week?'

‘Briefly.' He hesitated, then said somewhat reflectively, ‘Your Nora is an exceptional woman.'

‘She's not in the Army. Never has been. That's what you have to look for.'

‘Yes, and end up the same as Farley, with a girl like Trish Stannard.' He then turned back to the job. ‘In view of this new info regarding Carr and Sharon Miller, I sense that the relationship is truly behind Carr's sudden panic to run. We need to question Miller again, find out if he was contacted by his wife or someone who had discovered what was going on, on the very morning of that assault. Did he then threaten Carr with a parent's fury? Put yourself in Miller's place, Tom. How would you react if you received a call from Nora, on the brink of taking part in a simulated battle exercise, telling you your teenage daughter was having sex with a squaddie you regarded as the lowest of the low?'

Recalling how he had behaved at Easter when he had come upon Maggie kissing Hans Graumann, a perfectly innocent gesture of farewell to a thoroughly nice lad, Tom sighed.

‘I guess my initial urge would be to half-kill him, but in that situation I'd be limited to telling him I'd see to it he never had sex with anyone for the rest of his life. I'd put the fear of God in him.'

‘Exactly, and there we have the totally plausible answer to why Carr was impelled to leave before the end of that day.'

‘And to why Miller was visibly resistant to Farley's determination to send the Warriors out again to search for the missing man.' Tom got to his feet. ‘I'll go over to the West Wilts now and tackle Miller. Must remember to call the bastard
Smith
.'

Max called after him, ‘Tom, douse the fire! It's not one of your girls he's been playing around with.'

Tom glanced back with a grin. ‘Wait until you become a father. You'll be equally protective.'

As he left the building he realized what he had said and regretted it, although Max had surely recovered from the loss of his embryo son, along with Susan. Livya Cordwell had helped Max to put his life back on track, yet their relationship did not appear to be running smoothly.

TWELVE

‘
T
hat little slag's not my girl, she's his. Thinks the sun shines out of. Won't accept the truth,' Molly Miller told Connie aggressively. ‘Craig and Pierce are mine. She even had a go at
them
. Go on, tell the sergeant what she did,' she ordered. ‘Go on,
tell
her.'

Connie regarded the two flat-faced, overweight boys leering at her and had an inkling why Eric Miller and his daughter behaved as they did. This woman must be hell to live with.

‘Could we talk in private, Mrs Miller? I'm sure your sons want to carry on with their computer game.'

‘There's nothing you'll say that they're not entitled to hear. This is their home, even if they have to share it with Sharon. They have every right to know what she's been up to.' A satisfied grin. ‘Just you wait until you hear what they've got to say about their
sister
.'

The fatter of the two boys said, ‘She come in our bedroom in just knickers. Them ones that show all yer bum. Said did we know what girls look like.'

‘We was watching telly, like,' the other boy added. ‘Took no notice.'

‘So she took 'em off.
Right
off, like, and hung 'em over the telly.'

‘We tells 'er to bugger off,' the first one said with relish, but she stands there mooning at us until she 'ears 'er dad come in.'

‘Ran to 'er room then, din' she, Craig?'

‘Yeah. Left 'er knickers on the telly, though.'

Their mother treated Connie to a smug smile. ‘See what I mean? I told my husband what she'd done. Did she get the tanning she deserved? Nah, he won't have a word against her, and she denied it, of course. Said the boys must've took the knickers from her room when she was out.'

Connie had heard enough to tell she would get nothing useful here, so she asked whether Sharon had recovered enough to answer a few questions. ‘Is she allowed visitors apart from her family?'

‘Eric goes to the hospital when he can. We don't, of course. Silly bitch brought it on herself, didn't she? No way do we feel sorry for her.'

‘Is she allowed visitors?' Connie asked again.

Molly Miller sniffed. ‘Go if you want. She'll only give you a pack of lies. That girl is bad through and through.'

‘It's better 'ere without 'er and 'er knickers, in't it, Pierce?'

‘Yeah.'

Connie left, unsurprised that Sharon had turned to Carr for friendship, even if Zoe Rogers's opinion of him was
yuk
. In desperation, people respond to anyone offering a hand. Had it been a case of two unhappy misfits getting together?

Tom found Eric Miller in the Warrior sheds with several mechanics, checking repairs to his vehicle. The Sergeant scowled when he saw who had approached, and muttered something that sent the other two men away pretty smartly.

‘You haven't found Smith yet.' It was a clear challenge that gave Tom the perfect opening.

‘We have reason to believe your daughter might be able to help us with that.'

‘Sharon? She's been in hospital seriously ill. I told you that.'

Something about Miller's manner, some instinct, told Tom the man was unaware of the truth. If it
was
the truth. They only had Zoe's gossip to go on, yet Connie's call to Max regarding her very short encounter with the Miller family, which Max had passed on to him only minutes ago, gave Tom a fair idea of what Sharon might be like.